Why Neighborhood Pages are Important!

Online real estate marketing has grown in importance dramatically in recent years. With web-based marketing, Realtors® and real estate companies alike can reach new clients and keep their pulse on local real estate markets like never before.

A vital component to online real estate marketing and advertising is neighborhood pages. These pages are imperative for providing local (also known as hyper-local) real estate information to potential clients as well as expanding the reach of Realtors® and real estate firms of all sizes.

Neighborhood pages allow for unprecedented marketing and advertising opportunities, letting companies and Realtors® reach out and connect with prospective homebuyers and real estate investors from all across the globe in a very specific and niche-oriented way. Additionally, they provide vitally useful information on local schools, amenities, attractions and other points of interest for potential clients to see, allowing them to become acquainted with the neighborhoods they wish to live in and be able to better decide if it fits their unique needs.

Another reason that these pages are so important is the information about home prices and property values they allow both realtors and homebuyers to conveniently and quickly access. This can be done extremely effectively by utilizing the agent’s MLS IDX system and, if using WordPress as your platform for your site, plugins and widgets which are specifically made for such pages.

By creating neighborhood pages, you are essentially creating single landing pages for each neighborhood.  Depending on your market area, this can enable you to develop your website exponentially in a very short amount of time!  In addition, if created correctly (using researched keyword phrases within the page urls, titles and tags), you can gain great strides in search engine results and traffic to your site, which in turn will provide you with additional clients and eventual sales.

These pages act as critical real estate guides and information sources for potential homebuyers, giving them the knowledge they need to know before they move into a neighborhood. By gaining such specific insight into a neighborhood and its housing inventory before reaching out to Realtors® physically, prospective homebuyers are more likely to buy a home with that specific Realtor®. Having the right information about each neighborhood at the right time can make the difference between closing the sale or not.

Acting as an informational tool for local Realtors® and a connection to prospective real estate buyers, neighborhood pages are vitally important in the world of online real estate marketing and advertising. No Realtor® or firm in today’s world should enter the competitive market without investing the time and resources into creating neighborhood-based pages for clients to view online.

Why do Most Real Estate Agents Business Cards Suck?

As a REALTOR®, you know the importance of business cards when it comes to building your customer base. Unfortunately, many of these cards are so unbearably bad that you could be causing yourself more harm than good.
It seems that many cards being used by agents are just leaving the wrong impression. Even if you are the best REALTOR® in your community, when your business cards suck you can’t avoid the negative fallout. You are just going to drive those potential clients away; and, even worse, these people are not going to return.
There are a number of reasons why REALTOR®’s business cards fail to connect with prospective customers. Here are a few of the features that can sink any business card:
  • Crappy paper (too thin and cheap to take seriously)
  • TMI – Too Much Information (less text is better)
  • Poor design makes people think you are unprofessional
  • Improper use of color and fonts
  • Unflattering photo
  • Outdated picture- time to move past your college days
  • “I Love Referrals” (it makes absolutely no sense when you are giving this kind of business card to someone you just met!)
  • Tip Calculator on the back side of the card (Whoa!! Do you think anyone actually needs this?)
On the flip side, these are the features that actually do impress your prospective clients:
  • Quality card stock (paper with the perfect thickness and texture)
  • Less is more – include only the basics such as your name, company, title, contact numbers and website.
  • Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN icons
  • Business Logo
  • If you are to use a photo of yourself, please remember that you are a professional (and update your picture on a regular basis!)
  • White space is important – too much clutter defeats the purpose of the card.
  • Bold colors make your card stand out in the crowd.
  • Consider using both the front and back of your business card. (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN info can be placed on the back.)
Make sure you use business cards which convey your professionalism as a top real estate agent. You can find some high quality business cards on our website at a price less than you might expect.

How Often Should You Blog for Good SEO

Blogging is an increasingly popular and effective online activity. Blogging for the best SEO results, however, can be tricky. Good SEO requires dedication, a basic understanding of search engine marketing, a grasp of search engine principles and the drive to write compelling and enticing content.

Making your blog appear at the top of a search results page can be tough work, but with some dedication to your craft and a good understanding of SEO principles, can be done effectively. Good SEO skills are honed over time and require extensive trial-and-error tests. However, by blogging daily and researching effective SEO principles, you’re one step closer to making your blog one of the most popular online.

As a general rule of thumb, daily blogging is the best way to increase your SEO results. By pumping out new content on a steady, daily basis, you’ll ensure that your blog rises in the search engine rankings by developing a following and generating buzz. Daily blogging is the most effective way to build up your blog and make a name for yourself online.

Daily blogging, it should be noted, doesn’t mean just putting up content for no other reason. Be sure that each blog post is relevant to your audience and is edited and proofread extensively. Just putting up new, yet irrelevant, content is a surefire way to turn your audience off and lose your place in the SEO rankings. By making each post clever, relevant and clearly directed at your target audience, you’ll practically ensure that your blog slowly but surely develops a following over time.

Blogging on a consistent, daily basis is only half the battle. It’s important to remember that each blog market is different. Make a point to research how competitive the market is for your blog and what keywords work effectively. The more you know about your blog audience, the better you can tailor your blog to increase in traffic and on search engine results.

Effective SEO blogging takes time. By blogging daily, employing relevant content and getting to know your audience inside and out, you’ll be much better equipped to make your blog appear higher in the search engine results and ultimately generate more traffic and buzz overall.   However, being consistent in your blogging is more important.  Be realistic in how often you can (and will) add new posts to your blog.  One way to ensure that you do not move closer to the top of search engine rankings is by being inconsistent.

Creating GOOD Calls to Action on Your Website

Creating calls to action on your website

Real estate sites are a vital tool in reaching out to potential homebuyers and spreading information about local real estate markets. However, some fail to be effective due to a failure to entice prospective real estate buyers into contacting the Realtor® about buying property and homes.   This is largely due to an ineffective call to action. Calls to action are a critical step in reaching out to potential homebuyers and generating lucrative property sales leads.

Here are just a few ways to make calls to action on real estate pages more enticing and effective when attempting to reach out to new clientele:

Active & Urgent Language

The first and arguably most effective technique is to use active and urgent language when addressing your audience. Focus on action words and phrases like “How’s the market” and “What’s my home worth today?”  Doing so adds a sense of urgency to the reader that may have been missing before and the primary reason for the audience disconnect.

Multiple Teasers & Temptations

Having strong calls to action on every page is another effective technique for real estate bloggers.   Visitors to your site will not just be on your home page – they will (hopefully) visit numerous pages within your site and as such each page should have a call to action.  After all, the main purpose of having a website is to gain additional leads and sales, and the only way to do that is to gain their information, which can be obtained through your calls to action.

Be Deliberate & Obvious

Also, be sure to incorporate the call to action into your webpage prominently. Placing a “Contact Us” link on the sidebar of each page is a great way to catch the audience’s attention and to get the phone to ring.   It is also important to not clutter the call to action with other less important content. Doing so will make it blend in and seem less important.

Finally, make a point to use bolder colors and larger fonts to catch the audience’s eye better.

Calls to action are a critical link in online real estate marketing. By using urgent language, staying consistent and making the call more prominent and enticing, you will be able to generate sales and reach out to prospective property buyers.

Is WordPress Safe?

Easy to use and highly intuitive, WordPress is one of the top website and blogging services online today. As with other blogs, many have inquired about its safety and privacy for users. The security of WordPress, fortunately, is ironclad and amongst the best on the Internet. WordPress’ tough security features, top-flight customer support and stringent privacy controls make it among the safest and most secure blogging services in the entire world. For prospective bloggers, the security of WordPress shouldn’t be in doubt.

WordPress incorporate strong, state-of-the-art security features to guard users from privacy breaches, spam, viruses and other online hazards. WordPress 3.0, for example, maintains strong security safeguards as well as spam filters and other security measures. These features make it among the safest and most secure blogs out there.

Additionally, WordPress is also noted for its top-notch customer support services. Any privacy or security breaches are dealt with swiftly by WordPress. The company has made great strides in responding to potential security and privacy violations immediately, ensuring that users are as safe and secure as possible. WordPress’ eminent safety measures and excellent customer support make it among the most secure blogs in the world.

WordPress also features excellent privacy controls and settings that allow bloggers to maintain their privacy and security without breaking a sweat. The privacy settings allowed by WordPress include exclusive and private access by only pre-approved individuals, letting bloggers enjoy excellent safety and security from various online threats. In addition to its excellent privacy controls, WordPress also boasts top-notch safeguards against viruses, hackers and other online annoyances and threats. These privacy and safety features all ensure that WordPress users are secure and that their identities and intellectual properties are completely protected against any and all breaches.

Thanks to its excellent security features, fantastic customer support and strong privacy controls and settings, WordPress is among the most secure online. The site’s firewall of safety and security software ensures that users are safe and secure and that their identities are fully protected from hackers, viruses and other online threats. With its top-notch security and privacy features, all WordPress users can rest assured that they are safe.

We feel very confident in recommending the use of WordPress based websites!

Hello BrandCo: New Name Same Creative Juice!


I’m pleased to announce that over the month of July Arranging Pixels will become BrandCo!

Born in 1999 Arranging Pixels started as a network infrastructure company that built custom business applications for various industries including retail, legal and real estate.  Throughout the years Arranging Pixels has sold off it’s IT interests and morphed into a creative agency focused on small business.  Our team has amazing technical and creative chemistry that makes us positioned to be one of the best branding agencies for small business in the World.

The new name comes to solidify our commitment to becoming known as a worldwide branding phenomenon.  The name BrandCo was chosen for it’s solid stature, two syllable pronunciation, and it’s corporate appeal. We’ve always been very passionate about our client’s businesses and as we transition to BrandCo that will not change.  We are taking this opportunity to improve our policies and procedures, implement new systems to help our clients achieve success, and reinvent our company culture with our new mantra: “So others may win!”

As you can imagine, there are 100’s of things to do when changing your company name.  During the month of July you will see us make this transition.  You may notice communications with solely Arranging Pixels branding, joint branding, and as we get towards our launch date you will begin to see more and more BrandCo exclusive communications.

On Tuesday July 31st we will celebrate the commencement of the new BrandCo with the launch of our brand new website  just in time for our public announcement at Inman Connect in SanFrancisco.

This is a very exciting time for me and the entire Arranging Pixels team.  We are confident that at the end of this transition we will be a stronger brand that will allow us to reach more clients in more parts of the world. Thank you for being a valued client- without you we would not be where we are today!

With Great Respect and Appreciation!
Ken Granger
Founder & CEO
Arranging Pixels and now BrandCo.